The Miller Center is a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in presidential scholarship, public policy and political history and strives to apply the lessons of history to the nation’s most pressing contemporary governance challenges. more →

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From presidents Carter, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Colloquium -
‘Generation Gap’ to ‘Just Say No’: Suburban Politics and the War on Drugs from the 1960s - 1980s

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MATTHEW D. LASSITER is associate professor of history and associate professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan. He is the author of “The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South,” winner of the 2007 Lillian Smith Award presented by the Southern Regional Council. His article for the Journal of Urban History, “The Suburban Origins of ‘Color-Blind’ Conservatism: Middle-Class Consciousness in the Charlotte Busing Crisis,” was republished in “The Best American History Essays 2006.” He is also co-editor of “The Myth of Southern Exceptionalism” and “The Moderates’ Dilemma: Massive Resistance to School Desegregation in Virginia.” His current book project is “The Suburban Crisis: The Pursuit and Defense of the American Dream.”